The Sound 100.3 FM, which will soon go off the air after the sale of the station, often presented classic rock concerts around Southern California, such as a recent show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles by Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac. Seen here in a backstage photo from that show are most of the on-air staff of the station. Back row, left to right: Rita Wilde, Uncle Joe Benson, Andy Chanley, Sam Farmer, Steve Hoffman. Front row, left to right, Cynthia Fox, Gina Grad, Katie Thompson, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Mimi Chen, Mike Sherry, Tina Mica. Not picture are Tony Scott and Mary Price. Photo by Keith Weiner/The Sound

The Doors played and Jim Morrison sang, “This is the end, beautiful friend,” and while that’s a farewell song to say goodbye for eternity it might be too much of a bummer on which to wrap up The Sound 100.3 FM’s decade on the air in Southern California, says one of its DJs, though some listeners disagree.

But how do you say goodbye in a song? It’s a tough question to answer given how many fantastic choices there could be, but we made longtime Southern California DJs Uncle Joe Benson, Cynthia Fox and rita Wilde try to think of what they might pick if they were able to choose the very last song to play on The Sound before it goes off the air someday soon. Here’s what they — and some listeners — said came to mind.

Benson: “At this point I don’t have a song — ‘The End’ is a bit dramatic, I think. We came up with a list of 40 or 50 songs that we think would be good or clever. Whatever the song is it will be something that has meaning behind it. It won’t be Chuck Berry’s ‘My Ding-a-ling.'”

Fox: “I think it would have to be ‘The End’ off ‘Abbey Road,’ right?” (That Beatles song, which ends with the lyrics, “And in the end / The love you take / Is equal to the love you make,” was also the final song played at KMET-FM when it shut down.)

Wilde: “It would be something that’s close to me lyrically. Probably something from Springsteen or U2. Or maybe something rock and roll — ‘Rock ‘N Roll Radio’ by the Ramones. Something that makes sense to me and the listeners.”

Listeners: For one of Benson’s recent “10 @ 10” segments he played 10 tracks, swan songs for the Sound, suggested by fans of the station since news of its sale and coming closure broke. In the order they aired starting at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 3 the tunes include: “Another One Bites The Dust,” Queen; “The Sky Is Crying,” Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble; “Last Goodbye,” Jeff Buckley; “Long Live Rock,” the Who; “Take This Job and Shove It,” Johnny Paycheck; “Don’t Look Back,” Boston; “Highway To Hell,” AC/DC; “Loadout/Stay,” Jackson Browne; “The End,” the Doors; and, finally, “The End,” the Beatles.

Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County Register since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. He regularly covers the Oscars and the Emmys, goes to Comic-Con and Coachella, reviews pop music, and conducts interviews with authors and actors, musicians and directors, a little of this and a whole lot of that. He grew up, in order, in California, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. Earned a master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Earned his first newspaper paycheck at the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, fled the Midwest for Los Angeles Daily News and finally ended up at the Orange County Register. He's taught one or two classes a semester in the journalism and mass communications department at Cal State Long Beach since 2006. Somehow managed to get a lovely lady to marry him, and with her have two daughters. And a dog named Buddy. Never forget the dog.

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